Thailand has waived visa requirements for travellers from China for the next five months as the country seeks to revive its tourism industry, particularly in relation to the Chinese market, which has been slow to recover after the pandemic.
On Wednesday, the new Thai government led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin announced that the country will launch a five-month visa waiver programme for China and Kazakhstan from 25 September to 29 February 2024. The programme is expected to attract 30 per cent more travellers and generate more revenue for the country.
The news has been well received in China, with travel platforms inundated with searches and enquiries.
Searches for travel products on Trip.com Group’s travel platform jumped 800 per cent within 30 minutes of the news being announced. Qunar, another travel portal, said searches for air tickets to Thailand were up 70 per cent compared to the same time last week, and searches for hotels in the country doubled.
“The programme is timely as the period covers two major long holidays for Chinese people – the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday in early October, and the Spring Festival holiday at the end of January. The visa waiver programme will strongly encourage Chinese people to travel to Thailand in the next five months,” said Xu Xiaolei, chief brand officer of CYTS Tours in Beijing.
He said a visa policy is usually the most effective and convenient tool to attract travellers and boost consumption. “Some countries and regions have experienced ‘black swan’ accidents in recent months, and the upcoming visa waiver programme will help restore Chinese travellers’ confidence in Thai tourism.”
According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the visa waiver programme is expected to attract 700,000 new arrivals.
TAT statistics show that about 3 per cent of all outbound tourists from mainland China visited Thailand, the largest share among foreign destinations. In the first quarter of this year, Chinese travellers were among the top five groups of foreign arrivals, along with Malaysians, Russians, South Koreans and Indians.
The Thai government expects the number of Chinese visitors to reach the target of 5 million this year, with spending of 446 billion baht ($13.2 billion). The target is less than half of the Chinese visits in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. About 350,000 to 400,000 Chinese tourists have visited Thailand each month so far this year, with the total reaching 2.1 million by August, according to the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
One of the main factors preventing Chinese tourists from travelling to Thailand is security concerns, said Varut Kanchanapattana, board member and honorary treasurer of the Association of Thai Travel Agents.
“The visa-free regime will definitely boost tourism in Thailand and the country’s economy. But it still won’t have the maximum benefit if there is still a negative perception of Thailand among the Chinese,” he said.
Thailand has become popular with Chinese travellers in recent decades and was among the first countries to welcome Chinese tour groups after China optimised its COVID-19 control measures around February.
According to Trip.com Group, the upcoming National Day holiday from 29 September to 6 October will see a peak in outbound tourism, and Thailand is among the top three choices for its users.
Fan Dongxiao, who is in charge of short-haul overseas travel for travel company Tuniu, said more Chinese from second- or third-tier cities will choose to visit Thailand after the visa-free policy decision.
“We have already seen a surge in bookings for tour products for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, and the implementation of the visa-free policy will further increase people’s desire to visit Thailand,” she said.
In another development, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili announced on Monday that the Caucasus and Black Sea country has decided to introduce visa-free entry for Chinese citizens, with more details to be announced later.
“China is the world’s second largest economy. One of our main interests is to strengthen trade and economic relations with China, to attract more investment from China and to attract more tourists,” Gharibashvili told a government meeting in Tbilisi.
Chinese tourists are considered one of the most desirable tourists in the world, the prime minister said.
